A Noble Name

"Board Honors New School With Much-Honored Name: Career of Dr. E.E. Morrison, Physician and Educational Leader, Woven Tightly Into Web of This Whole Community."

Great Bend Herald -July 9, 1937

Fitting honor was paid Dr. E.E. Morrison, president of the Great Bend Board of Education, when the board met in special session on the night of June 30 and gave his name to the new grade school under construction at the north end of Jefferson Street between Seventeenth and Eighteenth.It was with reluctance that Doctor Morrison accepted this tribute to his long and unselfish service in the cause of education.Despite his protests, the board had made up its mind and went ahead, naming the new school house the E. E. Morrison School.Vice President Don C. Heminger of the board presided at the meeting. The new Morrison School contains six modern class rooms and an ample auditorium.Its cost completed will be $35,000. The only other action taken by the board that night was to provide waterproofing for the basement.

What a Contrast!In physical and other aspects, what a contrast between this up to date plant and the first school Doctor Morrison himself ever attended in Barton County!That was a room in his own country home, fixed up as a class room by his father and taught by his mother, one of the early "subscription schools" so characterisic of the pioneer days.Doctor Morrison's own struggles to get an education probably account in part for his interest in schools that has persisted throughout his life.But no doubt this interest runs in the Morrison blood stream, for his mother had taught school in Iowa where the family lived before moving to Kansas.His father was J.T. Morrison who had settled for a time in Allerton, Ia. He and his wife came from stock long domiciled along the Ohio Pennsylvania border.They Liked KansasBut they liked the Kansas idea, so they pioneered to northwestern Barton County nine years after the boy who was to be a doctor had been born at Allerton in 1868.It may be said that Doctor Morrison came to Galatia before Galatia came, for the community in that corner of the county was not to take its name until a good while later.There was no school in the neighborhood then. Settlers had little or no cash. Tax collections were slim. Few townships felt able to undertake the public duty of education.Nevertheless, most of the pioneers were determined that their youngsters should have the advantage of schooling. So they "subscribed for a school" pretty much as they might for a newspaper and the teacher drew his or her wages from the parental subscribers.One of the first things Doctor Morrison's mother did after she reached Kansas was to start such a school. She taught for one full winter.A Typical CaseHer case was typical of what went on elsewhere in the new state. In nearly every community someone could be found to carry on as teacher.Great Bend's school system, which Doctor Morrison has done so much to develop, got its start in this same way. Very soon after the town became a corporation in 1872, citizens organized a subscription school.The first high school resulted from the scholastic enterprise of Professor Reese, whom Doctor Morrison remembers well. Miss Florence Poole, who lives at 1800 Park Avenue, was its first graduate. She was and is the whole class of '87.Wanted a CollegeFourteen years after the railroad came and brought the city as such into existence, the Congregationalists of Great Bend decided to found an institution capable of giving more advanced courses.Thus the old Central Kansas College was born. Most of the students were in the preparatory stage, young E.E. Morrison among them.But the founders encountered financial obstructions. Their school became the Central Normal College, privately conducted for some years. He attended that too. Today the same building is the home of St. Rose Convent.Between periods of going to school the future president of the Great Bend Board of Education took time out to teach school. In this way he earned money to keep on going.He entered old Salina Normal University and was graduated from its scientific department in 1891. While struggling upward he taught at Galatia, Claflin and Hoisington.Normal InsituteIn 1894 he served as instructor in the Normal Institute, Great Bend. Schools of this type were authorized under the laws of Kansas at that time.County teachers would attend for a month to brush up on their teaching methods. The attendance was usually around a hundred. Once he was a member of the county board of examiners.Before entering professional school, he went to Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio, an outstanding institution not far from his ancestral background.At 27 he took his M.D. degree at Barnes Medical College, St. Louis, riper than most graduates, for his work at teaching had retarded his progress toward the diploma.Then for a year and a half he practiced at Banner City (now Elmo), Kansas, 17 miles south of Abilene.In 1898, the year of the Spanish American War, the young doctor came back to Great Bend to build his practice and career as a public spirited citizen.To Board in 1907In 1907 he was elected to the school board and since then, with two intervals, has served on that important body for a total of twenty years, most of the time as president.When the present Great Bend High School was finished in 1924 he left the board, feeling that with the completion of that fine building his duties should be assumed by someone else.But six years ago he was re-elected and again made president. His zeal for schools and schooling has never flagged.His respect for all the human effort it has taken to build our educational institutions into what they are is profund.Few lives have ever been more tightly woven into the web of a community or state than Doctor Morrison's.Thoroughly abreast of today's social, scientific and industrial progress, he is at the same time thoroughly aware of what we owe to those who preceded us on this scene.

An Indian ScareWhat they went through, he is convinced, had to be endured in order that we might have an approach to our own problems.He tells of an early Kansas experience that came to his mother before the Civil War."As a child," he said to a Herald man the other day, "she spent a year in the little log cabin settlement of a half dozen families on the Neosho that later grew into Emporia. One day all the men went up the river to cut wood."While they were away the woman saw a small band of Indians coming. This frightened them."The Indians might be merely courious about how the white people were living, but the women could not be sure. There had been raids and scalpings elsewhere."Anyhow, these resourceful women hurridly put my mother and another child to bed, placed wet cloths on the forheads and waited.By that time the Indians had come up to the cabin. Through the open chinks betwen the logs they could see everything inside.

Just One Word"Then a woman went to the door and uttered one word, 'Small pox.' That was the one English word which the Indians knew best and dreaded most."They hustled away in short order, for the white man's disease had carried off many of them. Unlike the whites, they had acquired no relative immunity against it."Not long after establishing his practice in Great Bend, Doctor Morrison married Miss Vida Shaw, daughter of Dr. S.G. Shaw, long prominent in his profession, whose widow lives at the Morrison home, 2400 Broadway. The wedding took place Dec. 19, 1900. Two sons were born to Doctor and Mrs. Morrison.Ever since he came to Barton county 60 years ago this physician and school builder has been a growing factor in the development of Great Bend and its environs.His charactor, professional skill and interest in education have been widely felt.What one man can do in and for a community is thus exemplified in the useful life of Dr. E.E. Morrison whose name the new Morrison School will carry forward into posterity, thanks to the admirable appreciation and purpose of the school board._____________________

...the new E.E. Morrison grade school building and the new Practical Arts building will be open to inspection by the public tomorrow night at 7 o'clock. The two buildings were erected last summer at a cost of $60,000.Special programs are being held in the city schools during American Education week and this inspection is a part of that program. Teachers will remain in the two schools during the time that the buildings are open, and the public is urged to attend.Invitations have been sent to parents to visit the schools during the day while their children are in classes and plans are being made for a special night school for parents to start sometime after the first of the year.

...The board accepted the decision with regret, knowing that Dr. Morrison had been one of the most ardent supporters of the school systems and would be a great loss to the education system of Great Bend. ...... a tentative program for the dedication of the new E.E. Morrison Grade school ... sometime early in January and several minor matters were approved._________________

Death Takes Dr. Morrison - Professional Leader Did Much for Welfare of SchoolsGreat Bend Herald -January 27, 1938

...Without his leadership, it seems certain that Great Bend's excellent educational system would be something less than it is. As president of the school board for many years he served so well that the mark he made on the community's consciousness stands as a memorial that will long outlast the brick and stone in the new school building that bears hs name.

... The Board authorized the building and grounds committee to undertake the laying of a sidewalk around the E.E. Morrison School on that part which is not already covered. Also a sidewalk will extend from the north door to the street.The committee is to supervise the laying of buffalo grass seed on the east high school yard and in such places on the Morrison school yard as is necessary. Shrubbery will be planted in places that the committee deems advisable.

W. T. Markham, state superintendent of public instruction will give the dedicatory address Friday evening, April 22, at the dedication services to be held at the high school auditorium at 8 o'clock for the E.E. Morrison and Practical Arts building.

The school board will act June 6 on a petition signed by 14 persons seeking the establishment of a kindergarten class at the E.E. Morrison school. At present, kindergartens are maintained only at the other two grade schools, Washington and Riley.

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Schools to Open With Plant, Personnel, Equipment in Top ShapeGreat Bend Tribune -August 18, 1949

The school children of the city will flock back to their scholarly tasks on Sept. 1 of this year to a new set-up in some cases and greatly improved quarters in others, the result of the now completed school building program begun last year. We have everything in our favor to make this one of the best school years we've ever had. The building program has provided a new eight-room addition at Morrison school, three new rooms at Washington and two new rooms at Riley.

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Last Year For Tuition In GradesGreat Bend Tribune -August 22, 1949

Everything is in readiness for the opening of schools, two weeks from today.The Morrison district includes the area north and west of a line running from the west city limits on Broadway to Washington, thence north to 17th street, thence east to Williams and thence north to the school district limits.

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Morrisondeed transferred to recGreat Bend Tribune -December 9, 2008

In other matters Monday, the USD 428 School Board approved transferring the deed of the former Morrison Elementary School property to the Great Bend Recreation Commission Foundation for development by the Great Bend Recreation Commission. The older part of the school was razed, leaving the 1980's gymnasium and the GBRC plans to improve that facility and add to it, along with adding parking.

The Original Building

3 comments:

Thank you for this blog! I lived at 22nd & Jefferson and attended Morrison School 1952-1959. I have a picture of our 1951-2 kindergarten class. When I find it I'll let you post it. I'm so happy to have found this wonderful blog.Becky Margheim Jamison

hello...remeber when 1987-1990 childhood.k to 5 grade miss are you morrison school remeber miss teacher each and oiffce p and my classmate good friendship and bestfriend... miss people alway left.. but me leave moving school for kansas school the for deaf 6 grade start 1991.but dont know late last 2008 gone . oh god no. my crying upset late not got photo never. late. my memoary life peace good school.my i am deaf. name is jennifer harris. many year life remeber change school room and with gym big for p.e and play. my cry life. gone left alway teacher and struent world when childhood miss. know. try got photo and yearbook hope missing. life call

Floor Plan

Demolition Expenses

Approval of Bid for Asbestos Removal at Morrison: Asbestos must be removed from the Morrison building prior to its demolition, and bids were received for this process, as noted below.Asbestos Removal and Maintenance. Wichita, KS $17,790.00B & R Insulation, Inc. Lenexa, KS $31,586.00Horsley Specialties, Inc. Rapid City, SD $37,200.00Kingston Environmental Service. Kansas City, MO $59,150.00An EBH engineer checked validity of the submitted bids. The BOE approved the low bid of$17,790.00 from Asbestos Removal and Maintenance.

USD 428 Boad of Education Meeting August 11, 2008

Approval of Bid for Morrison Demolition: Four companies checked out from EBH the plan document for partial demolition of the Morrison building. One firm, Stone Sand Company, submitted a bid for $73,000.00 for the demolition project. On 6/27/08, the administration shared with Board members that $100,000 would be transferred from Capital Outlay to the General Fund for accomplishing this project. The Board approved the bid from Stone Sand Company.